Dive Brief:
- Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) gave the keynote address at the Campus Safety National Forum last week and said she would support removing the Clery Act entirely.
- Her office later clarified that she supports removing the student safety law’s burdensome reporting requirements but keeping many of its other elements while adding required campus climate surveys.
- Among campus safety officials, the Clery Act is near universally disliked because its reporting requirements do not create accurate accounts of crime on campus, something McCaskill said she would like to change with a repeal or simplification of the law.
Dive Insight:
The Clery Act requires colleges and universities to report the number of specific crimes on their campuses and provide information to students about criminal activity. Critics say that the reporting requirements are flawed. If one campus does a better job of collecting data or has students who are more likely to report crimes, it will look like a more violent campus even though it isn’t.
An updated version of the Violence Against Women Act took effect last week, bringing with it new Clery reporting requirements, including the number of stalking and domestic violence incidents on a campus. The VAWA reauthorization also came with permission for institutions to remove crime reports that turned out to be unfounded, in rare instances. The Annual Security Report, however, must include the number of crime reports later deemed unfounded.